Politics

Posted with persmission from Theologically Driven.

In my last post, I suggested that the role of the pulpit in preparing a congregation for the upcoming presidential election is more complex than simply identifying relevant biblical values at stake in the election and offering corroborating textual support. Instead, we need to offer a theological matrix whereby the believer may successfully identify the most relevant concerns and weigh them appropriately. In short, it is the pastor’s responsibility to develop and communicate a biblical worldview that allows the believer to recognize and promote God’s expectations in areas where specific biblical guidance is not forthcoming. Note the following:

(1) The matrix begins with the realization that, in this dispensation at least, the spheres governed by Caesar and the church, respectively, are distinct (Matt 22:21). The church has no place in normalizing the legislation, adjudication, or execution of civic initiatives; nor has civil government any place in normalizing the doctrine and praxis of the church.

In just over two weeks all the campaigning, debating, advertising and analyzing will be over and it’ll all be up the Electoral College.

As a little election-season fun, see if you can guess what the Electoral College result will be.

This post continues my chapter-by-chapter review of Republocrat, by Carl Trueman (Part 1, Part 2). The chapter in focus here is the second, entitled The Slipperiness of Secularization. It’s thesis is that the US may seem to be less secularized than Britain, but probably isn’t. The reason is that here in the US, the church itself has become secularized in many ways. Hence, even though church attendance and religious language are far more common here than in the UK, these do not reflect genuine Christian faith and practice. To put it another way, Britain only seems more secular because it is more authentic about its unbelief rather than dressing it up like we do here.

After brief introductory paragraphs, Trueman develops the chapter under these headings:

• America: The Exception? (p. 22)
• British Christianity: The Dying of the Light (p. 23-25)
• The USA: Secularization, Religious-Style (p. 25-28)
• Secularization: Subtle and Speciously Orthodox (p. 28-32)
• The Patriot’s Bible and Beyond (p. 32-36)
• The Celebrity Syndrome (p. 37-39)
• Conclusion (p. 39)

These reflections concern Carl Trueman’s Republocrat, Chapter 1. (For notes on the foreword and introduction, see A Serialized Review). Two questions were on my mind as I approached Chapter 1: (a) Is Trueman really a political liberal? (b) Does he accurately understand the conservatism he left behind?

Two themes comprise Chapter 1. Theme 1 is expressed in the chapter title, “Left Behind”: how those of “Old Left” (Trueman’s term) political views are now homeless because liberalism has been “hijacked by special interest groups” (p. 14). Theme 2 makes the first interesting: how Left thought about oppression developed from the 19th century to the present.

The chapter is divided into eight sections.

• (Introductory paragraphs, p.1-2)
• A Brief History of the Old Left (p. 2-5)
• The Strange Love Affair of the Intelligentsia with Marxism (p. 5-6)
• Success and Failure: the Road to Redefinition (p. 6-8)
• Mr. Marx Meets Dr. Freud: the Changing Face of Oppression (p. 9-11)
• How Authenticity Made the Left Inauthentic (p. 11-15)
• Evangelicals and the New Left (p. 15-17)
• Conclusion (p. 17-19)